To say the least, the Hosts were surprised at how efficient Haruhi was at doing things. She could easily navigate in the Host Room, avoiding things even with her mind on not spilling trays of tea or snacks. Occasionally there would be a hand on her shoulder or back to guide her out of harm's way, but other than that, she was on her own. Of course, occasionally she would stumble of a stray bag, or bump into a table. Most of the girls would've died in embarrassment if that happened in front of the Hosts, but Haruhi just apologized for causing a disturbance and continued on her way. At one point, Haruhi collided with Takashi's wheel chair, nearly spilling hot tea down his back. Of course, Mitsukuni caught the tea in time and smiled at her saying, "Thanks, Haru-chan!"
She had nodded, not realizing what just happened before turning around and feeling two arms link with hers. "You know," Kaoru spoke up, scrutinizing the girl in front of him. "It doesn't match with the décor, does it?" There was a silent agreement from his brother. "I mean, just look," he waved his hand towards the other Hosts, who had temporarily slipped from their clients, "The six of us, and...him!"
"Thanks," Haruhi hummed, not that I could see myself right now regardless, bastards...
"You are so right," Tamaki walked forwards, grasping her sunglasses in his hands and removing them. Revealing her large brown eyes, that were once clear and sparkling, but now were cloudy. However, they stared at her curiously. "Hikaru, Kaoru!" Tamaki twisted around pointing a slender finger at them. Before she could ask, what was going on she was whisked away, hearing Tamaki shout out more orders. She was forced into a chair and her hair was tugged and pulled various ways until it lay in a styled crop above her brown eyes, framing her face nicely. She was lifted up and again and dragged into another room. She felt fingers start to tug her shirt upwards.
"What are you doing?"
"Helping you change!" Kaoru crooned a bit too loudly for her liking. She grumbled, grasping their arms and shoving them towards where they had entered.
"Get out! I can do it myself!" she insisted, crossing her arms. Waiting until she heard them leave, she walked towards the entrance and made sure no one was in the room before finally stripping down and pulling on the clothes, she stepped out of the changing room. Looking around. Fingers slipped the tie from her hands and tied it for her before she nodded curtly. Thanking whoever it was.
"Kyouya!" Tamaki suddenly shouted out, getting closer to the two of them. The rest of the Hosts hot on his heels, "I changed my mind!"
"Of course you did," Kyouya mused quietly, looking over at the blonde.
"Haruhi will become a host!" before she could deny that fact she was grasped tightly, "Aw, you are so cute, you look almost like a girl! Now go! Show the girls your beauty!"
She was shoved, but she stood still until a hand took hers and another hand slid her sunglasses on. She was guided over to a table and sat down, and then left alone to fend for herself as people started to talk to her. Female voices. At first, it was very disorienting until she got into the swing of things. The girls were amazed at her ability to pour their tea without giving them too much, and started asking her personal questions. Not about her disability, but about her. What grade, when she got there, family? She answered their questions with what everyone saw as a 'refreshing ease'.
"So you lost your mother ten years ago to an illness? Who did the cooking and cleaning at your home?" a girl asked sadly, Haruhi turned slightly towards the person and smiled.
"I did, I quite enjoyed it. Of course, after my accident I haven't been able too," she said thoughtfully smoothing her hands over the wood table. The girls stared at her sadly, none making a noise. For a moment, she thought they girls had left until there was a hand on her arm. It startled her slightly.
"Is it too bold to ask you what happened?" the owner of the voice asked her, a petite short black haired girl. Haruhi smiled softly and shook her head.
"A year ago I was in a car accident, I was wearing my grandfather's old glasses and they shattered," she laughed gently, "I had lost my contacts earlier that day..."
Some of the girls clutched to each other. "What happened?"
"The accident? Ah, it was raining out and someone rammed into the car behind mine, causing the car behind us to ram into the back of ours..." she trailed off, "I think there were at least four injured, no one died, thankfully!" There was a period of silence before the girls started cooing and apologizing to Haruhi. She just smiled and thanked the ladies for caring, causing them to blush, and asked if they could request her. After a happy nod, they chatted a bit more, asking about her father. "He loved it whenever I would make recipes my mother had left...especially when I got it spot on. I cherish those times."
"Can you still cook?" a timid voice questioned her, and she thought.
"I haven't tried, but I suppose I could. I remember how to do it; I would just need someone there to watch in case I go to make a mistake. Chopping might be difficult as well," she thought curiously, she had not actually thought about cooking again since she became blind. Not actually cooking at least, sitting for a while, chopping ingredients, mixing spices and sauces. Heating the food to the right temperature was about as much as she thought she could do.
She was called over by Tamaki, and she heard him introducing someone to her. Haruhi bowed slightly with a smile, "Pleased to meet you."
"Aw! So cute!" he jumped up and hugged Haruhi tightly, startling her and nearly cutting off her oxygen supply. There was commotion as she wriggled in his grasp, flailing and pushing him away. After a moment, she felt hands grasp her wrist and pull her off balance, making Tamaki let her go. She fell into someone's lap, and she didn't see the stern look Takashi gave Tamaki, for obvious reasons. Her hands instantly grasped as his jacket so she wouldn't fall, and because a bunch of girls screamed out at the action.
"Mori-senpai, you didn't have to go that far..." Tamaki trailed off, his bottom lip jutting out slightly. Haruhi was trying to find a way to get off her senpai's lap, without tumbling gracelessly to the floor, or asking for Tamaki's help. Eventually she just grasped the armrests of the wheelchair and yanked herself into a better position before twisting and standing up. She felt as if she had stabbed Takashi in the leg he wouldn't have even flinched in pain.
-X
"Kyouya-senpai," Haruhi hummed, her cane tapping against the side of his table, attracting his attention to the blind girl. One hand groped until it rested on the back of a chair. He stopped typing shortly.
"Yes, Haruhi?" he asked, resuming his typing, acting indifferent to the situation.
"What is everyone's disability?" she spoke quietly, not quite enough that it would sound as if she was trying to hide the fact that she was asking, but not loud enough to broadcast it to everyone else. She was curious, and not being able to see the others, she couldn't see much of what was wrong with them. Well, she knew the Hikaru and Kaoru were mute and deaf respectively, and Takashi was in a wheelchair, for some reason. However, for the life of her, she couldn't figure out the other three's disability that would qualify them for the school. Kyouya invited her to sit before looking about the room.
"I'm assuming you mean Hani-senpai, Tamaki and myself, am I correct?" Kyouya asked, not bothering looking up from his keyboard, knowing full well that she may have been looking towards him, but she wasn't looking at him. She wouldn't know if he was looking at her or not. "Well, you should ask them."
Haruhi huffed lightly, "I would, but it's rather hard to ask people in older grades, when the only time you see them their constantly busy doing other things."
"You don't see them," Kyouya glanced up at her, she gave him a face. A look of irritation.
"I am fully aware," she nearly snapped at him. "I would like to know the people who I'm going to be around until I pay off that debt..."
"Very well," Kyouya resigned after a moment. "For Hani-senpai, his story links to Mori-senpai's as well. The basics are, they had an accident, Mori-senpai lost his use of his legs, and Hani-senpai got brain damage that makes him act like..." he made a pause, as they heard the small senior cheer and praise Takashi for something in a cutesy tone, "that. He doesn't do anything to help others without being asked, and acts like he's five. For Tamaki, he has short term memory loss. He has to write down important things so he can recall them later, etcetera."
"What about you?"
"Colour blind."
"Oh..." Haruhi trailed off, a smile on her face. Amused. "Fully color blind?"
"Yes, I have no cone photoreceptors in my eyes. Does that amuse you?" he asked curiously, his jaw tightening. She shook her head, looking away. He wondered why she did that, but gathered that it was an old habit of hers. "If it was just cornea damage, why don't you get implants to reverse the effects?" Kyouya questioned, looking at his paper.
"I'm not a rich bastard, I don't have money like that," she laughed drily, "Isn't that a little personal question?"
"Asking me what my disability isn't?" he replied, a curious smirk on his face. Haruhi shook her head slightly, listening to the others chat to their clients. Something was odd to her. She stood up, looking down at Kyouya and excusing herself. He watched her walk over to Mitsukuni and Takashi's table, reaching out until she placed a hand on Takashi's shoulder, the moved to the right of the man and touched Mitsukuni's shoulder, asking him a question. He finished his bite of cake before hopping up, patting Takashi's head and following the girl off to the side. Part of him was curious as to see what they were talking about, but he realized, he just didn't care enough and turned back to his laptop.
-X
"Hani-senpai..." Haruhi spoke cautiously, "You're disability is brain damage...right?"
"Uhuh," the usually cheery senior seemed a bit saddened at that moment. He didn't start weeping, and was smiling. Putting up a cheery front so that his cousin, nor the guests, would be concerned and come over. He felt that Haruhi was about to say something important. She fiddled with the strap of her cane for a while.
"Yet, you're not," Haruhi mused quietly, causing Mitsukuni's cheery mood to plummet. He turned towards Takashi.
"Takashi! I'mma take Haru-chan to his room! He forgot something~!" Mitsukuni said cheerily in his sweet tone, "I'll be back soon!"
Before Haruhi could protest, she was dragged from the room and down the hallway, away from the Third Music Room. After what seemed to her like countless hallways, Mitsukuni stopped and turned to the blind girl. His cheery mood completely gone. How had she noticed so quickly? It was scary, his own cousin, the man who knew him since they were born couldn't tell. "Why would you think that, Haru-chan?" he asked, falsely cheery.
"Everyone thinks that you are childish because of how you act," Haruhi replied, tilting her head slightly. "Yet you helped me find my cane the other day...as well as offering to take me to the headmaster's office. Also, you're tone is...different..." she trailed off not knowing how to explain it to someone who relied on the way someone looked to tell how they are feeling. "You sound like an adult trying to be cute...or act like a child. Not a child being a child."
Mitsukuni stared at her with his mouth open slightly, frowning. Then he grabbed her shoulders, distressed, "Please, Haruhi, don't tell anyone!" he felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes. Not realizing he had startled the girl at his sudden change. Calling her by her full name instead of the partial nickname, he had given her. She swallowed thickly.
"I wouldn't have, but you should...why haven't you? Why do you want to stay here? I don't..." she trailed off, rubbing her neck. Mitsukuni looked at her, stung by her words but looked off to the side.
"Do you know how Takashi and I got injured?" he spoke quietly, looking at the floor, releasing her. "We were in a car accident too, I had asked Takashi to grab something for me, and he couldn't reach it...he took off his seat belt. The car slammed and he flew out the window, I smashed my head against something..." he trailed off shaking his head and fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill out, unsuccessfully. "He's injured because of me, Haru-chan...and I truly did have brain-damage until a couple of months ago when I started to get better...I just don't want to leave him here!"
Haruhi felt her heart strings being pulled and immediately wrapped her arms around the small seniors shaking shoulders, pulling him closer. He clung to her as if she were his mother and buried his head into her neck. "He can't do Kendo, he can't run, he can't jog, he can't walk, he can't do anything he loved to do because of me!" he sobbed into her shoulder. Haruhi ran her fingers through his blonde hair and listened to him quietly. "I'm such a bad friend!"
"Shh," Haruhi hushed, "It's not your fault. You couldn't have known that you would've been in that accident. If you had, you wouldn't have asked him to do that, you would've protected your head. If I had known I was going to be in mine, I would've taken off my glasses..."
"It's still my fault," Mitsukuni whispered, clutching her blazer tightly. "I shouldn't have been so selfish."
"Does Takashi-san hold a grudge against you?" Haruhi asked, pulling away from him. Hands touching his face before she produced a small white cloth and wiping the tears from his face gently. The boy shook his head, and she smiled faintly, "He does not believe it is your fault, so you should not be blaming yourself."
He was silent for the longest time, "Do not worry. Everything works out in the end."
"Unless this is the end..." Mitsukuni muttered darkly. Haruhi's grip on his chin tightened and she shook his head slightly.
"Don't think that way!" she scolded, "I'm fairly certain that Takashi-san would get surgery if he could. I mean, if I had the chance I would want my eye sight back."
"Then you wouldn't stay here!" Mitsukuni spoke, sounding distressed and looking equally distressed, grabbing her arms. "We'd miss you!"
"I don't have the money for the surgery," Haruhi soothed, patting his shoulder, "Regardless, if I did I would be putting it towards making my father's life better. He deserves it after all he's been through."
Mitsukuni stepped forwards and hugged Haruhi again. "Good," he murmured into her shoulder, "Hey, Haru-chan?" she made an acknowledging noise. "Can we just talk like this occasionally?" he asked quietly, almost shyly. Haruhi nodded with a smile, patting his head.
"I would like that."